Capital Report: 02-24-2017

Florida’s Governor and House leaders are at each other’s throats over funding for Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida. Nick Evans reports murmurs are growing louder lawmakers will need a special session to agree on a budget. Both sides are digging in, and the battle lines are becoming clear in a recent letter. The Florida House and Senate have dueling gambling plans, but Regan McCarthy reports leaders insist there’s time for the two chambers to come together.

Top Florida Republican lawmakers are heading to Washington, DC soon to discuss potential healthcare changes with their congressional counterparts. They want President Trump’s administration to adopt block grant Medicaid funding. But, as Sarah Mueller reports, some Floridians worry the sick and the poor will lose their health insurance as a result.

Advocates say even the most rigidly conservative, get-tough-on-crime Republicans are seeing the down side of mandatory minimum sentencing. Families Against Mandatory Minimum State Director Greg Newburn talked with Florida Public Radio’s Jim Ash about the Senate Judiciary’s unanimous vote to create a safety valve for a host of non-violent crimes, including low-level drug trafficking.

Florida lawmakers may be looking at getting rid of the state’s so-called “Clean Hands” provision. As Sascha Cordner reports, that provision stops those with a prior felony record from automatically receiving compensation, even if they were wrongfully imprisoned for a new crime.

Earlier this month, a Supreme Court appointed lawyer ruled against Florida in its decades-long water war with Georgia. As the court prepares to make its final decision, lawmakers are going back to the legislative drawing board. Kate Payne went to the coast to see what the ruling means for the struggling Apalachicola Bay and its world famous oysters.